Escape or Purpose

We've all had those days, weeks, maybe months.  The pressure builds and the heaviness drives us to our knees.  Will it ever stop?

When things get overwhelming, I start reading.  I find books with my phone app now.  I can usually find a few that cost little and the books stay with me wherever I go.  Technology can be so helpful!

Mind you, this is not reading about light refraction, genetics or quantum theory. The goal isn't curiosity, or education or any kind of enlightenment.  It's purely to get into a story and leave life behind for a while. Delve into a well written tome (or even one not so well written) and become engrossed in something that helps remove me from that which weighs me down - this is the target.

From my latest escape novel:

And at 31 Flavors, over a cup of Rocky Road, Dylan told Kyle how proud he was of him. “There were too many of them, you said, but you hit the ball anyway, and you hit it hard, and you ran, just like I told you.” “But I ran the wrong way,” Kyle said. “A lot of us run the wrong way sometimes,” Dylan said. “Even grownups like me.” “You do?” “Sure we do. I’m not talking about baseball. I’m talking about things we do in life. They’re called mistakes. But the main thing is that you take your swings. You try, and you run, no matter how many there are out there who want to stop you. That’s something you can learn today and keep for the rest of your life. Just keep taking your swings.” “You mean T-ball?” “Yes. And when you’re a little older, I’ll tell this to you again about other things in your life. Okay?” “Okay.” But of course, he never got the chance to tell his son those things again. And now, here on the bus, there were too many of them. Detectives and deputy sheriffs and an ex-cop trying to put him away and to tear him apart inside. But then he could almost hear Kyle’s child-voice, giving his own advice back to him. “Take your swings, and run as fast as you can.”  Your Son is Alive by James Scott Bell.

And so it happens.  The goal to circumvent the encumbrance of hopelessness is completely dissolved in one moment of reflection; this from a free, Amazon.com who-done-it -novel.

• Action is what disintegrates those experiences of paralyzing despair as life crushes us.
• Movement is what dismantles those seasons where nothing goes right.
• Execution is what decimates those eras of despair.  

"But the main thing is that you take your swings. You try, and you run, no matter how many there are out there who want to stop you."

A poem was popularized by Elisabeth Elliot. In it, a mantra repeats, "Do the next thing."

In the midst of life's drudgery, that's what we are to do - the next thing.  And by doing that, we are preparing ourselves for purpose. Even (or maybe especially) when we think it might be possible that we're running the wrong way, we need to do the next thing, take our swings and run as fast as we can.

The bible is full of the stories of ordinary, flawed people.  They were just living the life given to them doing ordinary things, doing life as presented to them.  And through those ordinary actions, God worked wonders.

There’s Ruth, Jeremiah, Paul, Peter, Joseph, Mary and Moses and so many more.  There are a hundred stories about mundane things people did and decisions they made that eventually became used for God’s purpose.

We all want a purpose.  And during those periods of despair, those long durations where we think we’re lost and nothing good is happening, we need to keep moving.  We need to keep doing.  We need to take the next step.

Because we need to recognize that it is in those very times, God is working and preparing us for His purpose.